Readers’ Favorite Restaurants 2006

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and even something blue. That’s one way to describe the winners of this year’s Readers’ Favorite Restaurants poll.

For the 21st year, L’Auberge Chez François was voted the all-around favorite restaurant. Readers also singled out the Haeringer family’s Alsatian dining room in the categories of Most Romantic, Best French, and Best Service.

Alongside L’Auberge and popular runner-up the Prime Rib stands a relative newcomer, Zaytinya. José Andrés’s modern mezzeteria—where the small plates average $6—has vaulted into a category typically reserved for more formal restaurants.

Roberto Donna—Washington’s only Iron Chef winner—again took honors for favorite celebrity chef. His downtown DC dining room, Galileo, won for Best Italian. It’s closed for a year of renovations, but you can catch the jovial Donna at his temporary perch, Bebo Trattoria in Crystal City—the space that once belonged to Andrés’s Oyamel.

The blue? That would be the Blue Duck Tavern, lauded as favorite newcomer. Chef Brian McBride’s roasts and braises, coupled with his straight-from-the-farm approach, have won many fans. It’s one of the year’s most important restaurants.

“Too many chains!” was one of readers’ biggest gripes. But nationally owned restaurants did well across the board. Ruth’s Chris and Morton’s edged out local worthies for Best Steakhouse. And many more people here have tucked into a whipped-cream-drenched slice of Oreo cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory than into one of Michel Richard’s soufflés at Citronelle. How else to explain why his masterful sweets placed second to the California chain’s defrosted desserts?

Still, the winner in the Best Chain category isn’t a national behemoth but the DC-based Clyde’s, an eminently comfortable, consistent operation with 13 area locations. The 14th, a 30,000-square-foot complex in Loudoun County, opens in December.

Best Restaurant

L’Auberge Chez François, Great Falls. It’s the 21st time readers have given the nod to this elegantly rustic Alsatian dining room.

The Prime Rib, Downtown DC. Enjoy great steaks and crab imperial with gleaming mirrors and a tinkling piano in the background.